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Saturday, May 2

Excellent Point By Glenn Greenwald on Torture

Perhaps the GOP ought to go back and read the treaty that their god, Ronald Reagan ratified in 1988. It's a far cry from what the right advocates today and Reagan's treaty is now something being touted by the far left. Who knew? Today the GOP and many churchgoers would dispute Reagan. Many of these idiots are devoted to the TV show 24.

Convention Against Torture, signed and championed by Ronald Reagan, Article II/IV:No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat or war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture. . . Each State Party shall ensure that all acts of torture are offences under its criminal law.

The views that Ronald Reagan not only advocated, but signed a treaty compelling the U.S. to adhere to, are ones that are now -- in the view of our dominant media narrative -- the hallmarks of The Hard Left: torture is never justified; there are "no exceptional circumstances" justifying it; it must be declared to be a serious criminal offense ; and -- most of all -- the U.S., as Ronald Regan put it, "is required either to prosecute torturers who are found in its territory or to extradite them to other countries for prosecution." Reagan's explicit view that the concept of "universal jurisdiction" permits signatory nations (such as Spain) to prosecute torturers from other countries (such as the U.S.) is now considered so fringe that it's almost impossible to find someone in mainstream American debates willing to advocate it. Excerpt from Glenn Greenwald at Salon